A purported Taliban associate says ‘we have three facilities exclusively for fidayeen’.

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistani Taliban have claimed that they are running three secret camps in South and North Waziristan tribal regions close to the Afghan border to train potential suicide bombers with their total strength exceeding 1,000.

“We have three facilities exclusively for fidayeen (suicide bombers). Each one has more than 350 men being trained in it,” a purported spokesperson for the little-known Fidayeen-e-Islam Group of the Taliban, told The Express Tribune from a secret location in North Waziristan.

The man, who identified himself as Shakirullah Shakir, added that the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) led by Hakimullah Mehsud had recently separated the operations of suicide bombers from the overall activities of the group.

“Fidayeen-e-Islam is a part of the overall chain of command of the TTP but it works separately and has its own structures,” Shakir said but gave little details of the working relationship between the mainstream Taliban leadership and the group handling suicide bombers.

The claim came on the heels of a statement by an alleged teenage suicide bomber who was arrested by the police at the Sakhi Hassan shrine in Dera Ghazi Khan after the vest he was wearing went off only partially, injuring him.

Omar told journalists later at a hospital that he was trained at a camp run by the Taliban with more than 300 people learning how to become the most lethal weapon.

Though there was no way to confirm the claim independently, Shakir said Omar was trained at one of three camps at Mirali town of North Waziristan and what he told the media about the number of under-training bombers was true.

“We own both Omer and his words,” the spokesperson added.

Shakir said one of the biggest camps was in Mirali in the North Waziristan, an agency security and intelligence officials believe was under the control of pro-Pakistan militant groups. He didn’t disclose the locations of two other facilities.

Of the more than 1,000 potential bombers, Shakirullah claimed, a few dozen had already been sent to hit their targets across Pakistan.

He did not say what their targets were but another Taliban associate said the most prominent personalities the terror network now wanted to hit were politicians, some selected people from the media and individuals working with civil society organisations.

Almost a week ago, a spokesperson for the Taliban, Ihsanullah Ihsan, told the Associated Press news agency that both governor and chief minister of Balochistan province were on the hit list of the group.

these taliban are not the only problematic ones,we should remember it was not the taliban but the barelvi clerics who were behind the brutal murder of salman taseer.That religious savage qadri had been attending the sermons & speeches of barelvi fanatics.

These same clerics then forbade the public from attending the funeral of shaheed salman taseer.We have to stand up against all forms of religious barbarity,be it the fanatical taliban or the other sects.Recommend

Now PAK people will understand why drones are hovering over Waziristan.

These camps are recruiting and training grounds for global network, and PAK children are fooled and they believe Taliban when they also hear the same message from PAK politicians that drones are killing innocent people and America is the problem. Recommend

what are the drones doing?? they should wipe out these religious psychos before they get a chance to kill & injure more pakistanis.

the drones should also start targetting the madrassas where these fanatics are taught their hatefilled,bigoted,homophobic,women oppressive ideology & nip the evil in the bud.

our madrassas have proven to be nothing but nurseries of future terrorists & murderers & since our own govt. is too cowardly to take on the mazhabi barbarians it’s time the drones did us a favor & cleaned up our filth.Recommend

Taliban apparently do not have any conflict of interests with Balochistan’s cm and the governor of that province. It seems that these two people have offended the showdy intelligence agencies and mandarins of ISI. If a third-class army of the world like that of Sri-Lanka could wipe out Tamil tigers, who were believed to be the most fierced terrorists, why cannot our army that has been eroding all our resources eliminate these handful of extremists. The answer is simple. they are a strategic asset.Recommend

talebans are cowards and the biggest liars today as a pakistani i challenge them to send 10 suicide bombers to blow themselves up in cities like karachi and lahore every month they will not because they are scared they will only blow themselves up in small town markets because they are soft targets cowards just cowards Recommend

Forget about the drones. Let Pak have its treasured “sovereignty” back. Along with it, scores upon scores of dead “innocent civilians”, blood running in its cities and villages, simply because Pakistan and its citizens have the hyper-dysfunctional inability to open its eyes to the true enemy standing right in front of them.

It doesn’t matter how many similar statements or articles appear, the drones and America will always be the enemy.Recommend